About the Digitization

The Beneath the Surface and Cast in Steel: Forging the American Industrial Union Movement Digital Project resulted in the digitization of 377,000 pages of archival materials in a variety of formats, including photographs, scrapbooks, surveys, panoramas, and three-dimensional artifacts. Though only one facet of the broader project, the digitization relied upon the efforts of several librarians and staff members distributed across the PSU Library System and its completion ensured the accessibility and long-term preservation of the material legacy of labor organizing in the United States.

As part of the work on this project, the Preservation, Conservation, and Digitization Department has chosen to make public the processes and procedures used to digitize the collection in an effort to inspire transparency in the digitization process. Below researchers can find the full workflow created by our Preservation, Conservation, and Digitization Department to document these efforts.

  1. Review selected collections and process in the archival management system. (ArchivesSpace)
  2. Consult with curator(s) to make selections for in-house and vended digitization.
  3. Set imaging specifications: refer to Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI).
  4. Contact vendors with imaging specifications, scope of project, and request a quote.
  5. Review quotes and select a project vendor.
  6. Begin collation of collection items by removing staples, clips, as well as noting any fragile, oversized, or missing materials in a spreadsheet for the vendor to reference during imaging.
  7. Schedule the shipment of materials. Multiple shipments may be needed. Recommendation: Consult with curator(s) to assist with prioritizing and creating inventory of vended materials.
  8. Negotiate monthly shipments of digital files from vendor via hard drives. Remember to validate and verify files upon receipt (corruption, file count, file type, and desired directory structure).
  9. Begin in-house digitization of selected materials. Consult with curator(s) and request to check out items from Special Collection. Review collection irregularities and imaging specifications. Remember to select best scanning equipment based on the archival material.
    1. Photographs and surveys Epson Expression 12000XL [Flatbed Scanner]
    2. Oversized maps, drawings, and newsprint → Metis DRS 1500 DCS [Large-Format Scanner]
    3. Bound ledgers → ATIZ Mark II [Book Scanner with Dual Camera System]
    4. Scrapbooks → PhaseOne Digital Back [Medium-Format Camera with Hydraulic Table]
  10. Distribute digitized files to staff for quality control (QC). Visual checks on all digital surrogates, and technicians will run MDQC software against all files. Note issues on digital objects spreadsheet. Rescan any items that fail QC process.
  11. Review materials for any necessary redactions or restrictions. Example: UMWA President’s Correspondence contains personal identifiable information (PII). Coordinate with IT department to use automated software to flag redactions (Identity Finder). Digitization staff to review results, and manual redact information marked as PII.
  12. Finalize image corrections, as well as adding rescans to the file directory.
  13. Build metadata sheet for collection(s).
  14. Consult your facilities’ Copyright Officer to assign rights statements to digital objects before publishing in online access platform.
  15. Process image and metadata files for upload to content management system. (CONTENTdm)

Optional: Ship batches of digital content to vendor for on-site upload. (OCLC – Product Manager)

  1. Review ingested material, make necessary corrections, and publish collections for online access.
  2. Consult with Digital Preservation team to transfer collection files to long-term storage.

Users interested in more information about the digitization and preservation of these materials should contact the Preservation, Conservation, and Digitization Department for additional information.